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Tired_Rabbit Author

Level 1

26 points

My bank bill payer does not work with Safari

Bank (Truist) says to check that I'm not doing any restrictive stuff:

Block third party cookies

Cookie tracking

Cross-site tracking

This is something I have seen plenty of times before. So if I want to use bill pay, I just make sure that those settings are not in conflict with what the bank wants. Safari, after my OS/Safari update today, does not have a setting for cross site tracking (I assume that as long as I am not blocking third-party cookies, cross site tracking is not a problem and I am not blocking third-party cookies). My third-party cookies setting is unchecked. I am accepting cookies. So as far as I can tell, I am in compliance with the banks requirements.

I assume this is a problem with Safari because yesterday I had no problem using bill pay. This isn't the first or even the second time I've had to make an adjustment in Safari after updating in order to use my bank's bill pay. So I don't think I've missed anything there?

iMac 27″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 6:50 PM

Top-ranking reply

etresoft

Level 9

51,144 points

Posted on Sep 23, 2024 10:36 AM

Tired_Rabbit wrote:

Is this problem unique to me

It may be unique to your bank. It's extremely difficult to give absolutely precise answers to questions like this in the forums. Maybe you have some browser extensions that are incompatible. Maybe you have some incompatible ad blocking. Maybe you have malware that is incompatible. Maybe you have anti-malware that is incompatible. It's a long list.

You specifically asked about cross-site tracking, so answers are going to focus on that. But it could be all kinds of different things.

Is this an unintended bug resulting from the update to the new OS/Safari

Obviously it is a change resulting from the new version of the OS/Safari. It might no be a bug and it might not be unintended.

If it is a bug then why hasn't Apple reported it as such?

Apple doesn't report bugs. End users report bugs to Apple. If they are very serious with a clear, easy solution, and Apple wants to fix it, then you can expect a fix in 2-3 months.

I guess it's a minor thing since absolutely any other browser out there has no problem handling bill pay.

Each bank is going to have its own implementation of these services. It's the same old story. If your bank is a small local bank with a few thousand users, then it's the bank's problem to fix. If the bank is Citibank, then it's Apple's problem to fix.

It's just weird that Apple would want to encourage users to leave Safari and do their banking with some other browser. Ignoring bugs by giving them the silent treatment is something we've all learned to accept as SOP by every tech company out there.

You also have to consider Apple's own banking needs. As long as the best, most profitable customers can still do their banking using Safari, then there's no problem from Apple's perspective.

But this one's a little weird if indeed it is a bug.

If this is really something more than cross-site tracking, you can dig into it a little more. You can turn on Developer options in Safari and inspect the web site. You don't really have to know a lot about HTML. All you have to do is show the console and then reload the page. You will probably get a few dozen bright red error messages. They will probably tell you exactly what Safari is complaining about. It might not be a tracking issue.

It is very unusual for a bank to be doing cross-site tracking. That's a real Red Flag. Chances are, they are playing fast and loose in other areas as well. The most likely explanation is that the site is poorly constructed. That's not uncommon. Web developers test in Firefox, Chrome, and whatever Windows is using. They rare give much thought to Apple platforms. And if the site is poorly constructed with lots of browser-specific hacks, such sites are exceptionally likely to break when browsers are updated with more stringent privacy protections.

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23 replies

Tired_Rabbit Author

Level 1

26 points

Sep 23, 2024 4:48 PM in response to etresoft

"You specifically asked about cross-site tracking, so answers are going to focus on that. But it could be all kinds of different things.

Is this an unintended bug resulting from the update to the new OS/Safari

Obviously it is a change resulting from the new version of the OS/Safari. It might no be a bug and it might not be unintended."

I don't know about "specifically" asking about one single thing since I've tossed a lot of questions your way. But if I had to sum it up right now, I'd just want to know if I might as well get comfortable with another browser. I'd do this if nobody is going to recognize broken bill payer UI's as a bug. Apple can dismiss it or use their own definitions and throw hands in air; it's a bug. While Apple can't possible keep up with all of those bank bill payer web UI's, you'd think that at least they'd check if things were working for say, the top 10 commercial banks. Truist Bank is in the top 10.

And about that banking stuff, just today I logged into Chase, tried to send a message using their UI and got a spinner. Tried it in Firefox, no problem. Same thing has happened in the past on other sites but I never gave it much thought because it wasn't all that important. I'd be thinking on the stuff that you said about maybe it's my configuration of extensions and what-not except it's Apple & Safari. My choices for popup blockers and the like is limited just a bit. But to your point, I did disable all 2 of them (App Store approved) - no change.

No problem really. I'm not stressing over it or anything; it's just browser stuff. But I am just a little annoyed - at myself - for wasting so much time (yours and mine) in such a pointless way.

Tired_Rabbit Author

Level 1

26 points

Sep 24, 2024 6:50 PM in response to etresoft

etresoft wrote:

Tired_Rabbit wrote:

I'd just want to know if I might as well get comfortable with another browser.

Well, if you need to pay bills and Safari won't do it, for whatever reason, then you'll have to use another browser.

I'd do this if nobody is going to recognize broken bill payer UI's as a bug. Apple can dismiss it or use their own definitions and throw hands in air; it's a bug. While Apple can't possible keep up with all of those bank bill payer web UI's, you'd think that at least they'd check if things were working for say, the top 10 commercial banks.

It really doesn't work that way. Apple codes the web browser to a set of HTML and Javascript standards. And it's been very well tested both inside Apple and with thousands of beta testers over the past few months.

Apple's teams for these things are much smaller than people might expect.

And about that banking stuff, just today I logged into Chase, tried to send a message using their UI and got a spinner.

That's a good indicator that the problem is unique to your computer.

Same thing has happened in the past on other sites but I never gave it much thought because it wasn't all that important. I'd be thinking on the stuff that you said about maybe it's my configuration of extensions and what-not except it's Apple & Safari. My choices for popup blockers and the like is limited just a bit. But to your point, I did disable all 2 of them (App Store approved) - no change.

There is a lot less involved with App Store approval than you might think. That means the apps aren't obviously malware, aren't violating any Apple developer terms and conditions, and don't crash on launch. If those extension break your bill payment, Apple doesn't care. But there are a lot of other apps that could be interfering.

You could try an "Extensions off window". You can also try a new user account on your computer. Ideally, you would confirm this with an entirely factory-fresh system. I have very high confidence that everything would work perfectly in that situation. There is a reason why this entire support forum exists - and it's 3rd party system modification software.

Thank you providing stock answers to every issue that I posted. I need reminding from time to time about how user support still functions. I especially appreciated the lack of faux sympathy usually used in phone support, web chat (with both human and AI representatives) and ticketed support emails. It's not just that all those variations on "I'm sorry..." are without meaning, they've become so trite and unimaginative. None of that here. This is my first experience with the "Blame the victim" approach - novel in this context but not really all that original.

As it turns out, each point was unfounded in any reality but the corporate. The update to 15.0 makes things right again so all is forgotten (if not forgiven).

Sep 28, 2024 12:12 PM in response to etresoft

I don't think it's unique. I have the same problem as do many others. My credit union told me that Apple is aware of the problem and is working on a fix, but no ETA. It however does work with my iPad and MacBook (because I didn't upgrade to Sequoia). I'm sure they'll fix it soon. If not, I just won't update the MacBook until they do.